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An evening of musical blends
Melodies that rock the soul
SOUNDS OF the guitar and the tabla, interrupted now and then by an electronic whine that rose to a screech, wafted through the empty auditorium.
There was an hour or so to go before the music concert was to commence, but the musicians were already busy tuning their instruments, and the technical crew were going about the specialized job of adjusting microphone levels and checking the sound output.
It was to be a hectic evening for `Oikyotaan', a contemporary folk band that was to perform for the first time in Coimbatore, before an audience of music enthusiasts at the PSG Institute of Medical Sciences Auditorium.
When satisfied that everything was in order, the musicians took a short break to refresh, before appearing on stage for the concert.
Though tired out by their long journey and the rehearsal, they were willing to spare a few minutes to speak about themselves and their first visit to the city, at the invitation of the G. V. Centre for Performing Arts.
"Oikyotaan stands for the confluence of a thousand melodies into one," said Bonnie Chakraborty, vocalist and percussionist, who led the evening's line up.
"Taan is the universal melody, and our idea in putting it all together is to promote folk music. We don't want to distort the music, we are only trying to support it," he explained.
"We want listeners to go home with a very melodic feeling at the end of the concert.
Keeping the harmony flowing
They should feel that although we had been singing in eight different languages, the basic medium of melody is the same," Bonnie added.
It was not possible to totally remove folk music from the urban environment, because the people were experiencing folk music in some form or the other, through the popular film medium.
Oikyotaan was quite a young troupe, only six-months old, but they had already put up five shows so far.
At around the same time last year, they had made their presence felt at `The Other Festival' in Chennai.
They had performed in Kodaikanal for the Kodai Green Association, and at Kolkatta too.
Their music for the evening was to be a mixed bag indeed, as could be seen from the programme sheet.
One of the highlights was to be `faquiri music' from Bangladesh, which was the equivalent of Sufi music.
An hour and a half later, the music of Oikyotaan had cast its spell over the Coimbatore audience, and worked its magic too. Cheers, whistles, howls, screams and loud applause indicated how much the audience loved the songs.
It did not matter that the language was strange, or that many of the lyrics were unfamiliar, for the beat and the melody took over and produced a unique experience.
Bonnie had worked with a unique music format from Rajasthan, one that was prevalent among the `Langas' and the `Manganiars' tribals of the region. `Langas' are the cheerful gypsies of Rajasthan, and their best songs have a family orientation.
"We want to support folk music with a basic kind of sound and a harmony element, so that it is an extension of an already beautiful form," Bonnie had said during the brief chat, and that was the underlying theme of the evening.
There were original songs by Oikyotaan too.
One popular number was `Suno Saanwariyaa', which encompassed two different styles of music, Rajasthani folk and Western funk.
By Michael Raj A.A.
Photos: K. Ananthan
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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